Sunday, January 18, 2015

Bizarre
photographs have emerged of a derelict shopping place in Bangkok, Thailand,
after its closure in 1997 ~ who lives on
its ground floors makes it interesting
!!The city of Chennai has many of them [every other city have them] – from
Alsa, Spencer, Chennai city centre, Ampa Skywalk, Express Avenue, Chandra,
Spectrum, Ramee, The Forum Vijaya, Phoenix …… and more ~ the malls of
Chennai. Youngsters throng the mall –
roaming and shopping and there are huge crowds at any point of time. For an Insurer, malls are high risk – they are overcrowded; too different
categories of risks exist. Since it employs people of all hues, coordination
could be a hit.

It is so enchanting to keep looking at fish
swimming whether in a pond or in a aquarium.
Fish keeping is a popular hobby which sure would give you lot of mental
peace and tranquillity. Aquarium is a
place with at least one transparent side in which water dwelling animals
including fish are kept and viewed. Aqua
is a Latin word meaning water and ‘arium’ is a place relating to. There are very big aquariums in some
Countries where humans walk inside and from the sides can view the marine
animals in their natural best. There are
aquariums with big tubs in which fish and other aquatic creatures are
kept. At home, even a bottle would serve
as an aquarium for keeping fishes like Gold fish, Angel, molly, Guppies
etc., The fish tanks are generally
rectangular in shape but would include glass bowls to keep gold fishes. Then there are ponds – big or small,
artificial or natural – that stocks fish.
In Thiruvallikkeni
Kairavini pushkarini, Corporation used to breed guppies – those guppies would
be taken in small earthen pots and dispensed to all wells in the vicinity –
guppies would feed on the larvae of mosquito and effectively control them.

The Japanese Koi, a
group of fish that are
ornamental varieties of domesticated common carp are grown for decorative
looks. Koi carps
are distinguished by colour, pattern and scalation. In India, Catla is distributed
wide. It inhabits the surface layer of water and
feeds upon plankton. Rohu and Mrigal inhabit most major river systems
of Asia.

Miles away in Thailand, few blocks away from Khao San Road sits New
World, a four-storey, roofless, abandoned mall on the corner of Banglamphu
Intersection. The building’s flooded basement now serves as a home for
thousands of fish and is arguably home to the most exotic underwater species in
Bangkok.
Back in the 80’s, Kaew Fah Plaza
Company Limited built New World as an 11-storey mall. The company was later
found in breach of a building law after it constructed seven more floors on top
of the approved construction blueprint. The mall was shut in 1997, and
unfortunate series of events occurred thereafter. The mall was set ablaze in
1999, causing some casualties and in 2004, one person was killed from
collapsing debris during a partial demolition. The mall’s fifth to eleventh
floors were eventually dismantled to be in line with the original plan and New
World has been roofless ever since.

With no roof,
rainwater unsurprisingly collected in the basement. The pool of static water
reared mosquitoes. Mosquitoes annoyed vendors in the neighborhood. To fix this
problem, some vendors released a bunch of fish into the pool so as to curb
mosquito breeding. Quickly, that bunch of fish reproduced into thousands. In
2011, New World closed its doors after a huge number of locals visited the mall
to sight the unseen, 500-square-meter fishpond… here is something taken from Daily Mail and
other web news sites.

It the bizarre story of how a derelict shopping plaza in
Thailand became natural urban aquarium to thousands of giant catfish, carp and
tilapia, aided by the combination of heavy rainfall and mosquito larvae. Over the years the structure became home to
more than 3,000 fish; however, now the abandoned shopping center is set for
demolition. Over the weekend workers
clubbed together to clear the pond-like ground-floor of creatures.

It was once home to
dozens of fashion stores - that was before the fish moved in. The derelict place, the combination of heavy
rainfall and mosquito larvae made it the perfect breeding ground for amphibians. Though there were worries that it could be a
hotbed for disease, enterprising vendors were selling bags of fish food to
tourists for around 35 cents. The roofless New World department store, which
fell into disrepair following a fire, and which was a fish pond literally is
now set for demolition. Government officials feared the structure
could disintegrate at any time, with escalators and walkways on the brink of
collapse.